


Melt / Grind / Heave

by verulams (finnlogan)



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, And for the tentative second chapter:, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Behavior, Not Beta Read, Other, Praise Kink, Starbucks, effectively:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:20:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23671450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finnlogan/pseuds/verulams
Summary: Coffee shops, as it turns out, are a viable source of work, even for people like Eddie.***You like the cafe work.“Do I?” he scratches at his head, leaning back on his hips. "What makes you say that?”You like it when people smile at you.Uh.Uh.“Do I?” he repeats. “Huh.”He doesn’t think about Annie’s smile, doesn’t think about Dan’s grin, doesn’t think about the odd way Venom could split his mouth, and the teeth, the teeth- He doesn’t think about it. Doesn’t.God damn it, Eddie.
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 17
Kudos: 120





	Melt / Grind / Heave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kindredness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kindredness/gifts).



> This is _messy_ , I won't lie. I really enjoyed writing it though, it was a fun test! Thanks so much to [beansprouts](https://beansprouts.tumblr.com) on Tumblr for this request.

Eddie Brock has been through some shit. He's lost his job, lost his girlfriend. In his darker moments, he kinda feels like he's lost his life.

Now he's working at a Starbucks.

It was the only place who'd take him, after Carlton Drake. He'd done the Drake interview, and then… boom. No life for Eddie. He scowls into a coffee cup, scrawling a name that he thinks _might_ resemble "Keighlighegh". He's not sure if 'no life for Eddie' came directly after Drake, or if it came just after he'd done the trial shift for Starbucks.

Still, in his head, he plays darts on a picture of Carlton Drake's smug fuckin' face.

His boss- a mean, asshole of a dude called Florida James- had hired him, at least. He despises his boss, who docks his pay and his hours, and Eddie can't do a damn thing about it. It also didn't help that he didn't have a proper first _or_ last name. James, Eddie'd sometimes repeat to himself in the night after a particularly lousy shift, was a _first name_. He _would_ say, 'oh, nice enough guy,' but in reality? Florida James was not kind, and Eddie's reasonably sure he'd kick animals, cats or something if given a chance.

Eddie, on the other hand, had _never_ tried to kick Mr Belvedere. Not even in his _darkest_ , most _cat-hating_ moments, Eddie had not tried to kick Mr Belvedere.

Florida James would _absolutely_ kick Mr Belvedere. And the fact that he worse suit pants with his apron? That annoys him. The fact that they were inevitably _pinstriped?_ That annoys him even more.

Anyway.

It's fairly simple, as life goes. Eddie's not used to _schedules,_ not the way Starbucks did them, but at least his boss _here_ didn't ask him to risk his moral integrity every time there's a big name to interview.

Not, he supposes, that there are many more ways to _damage_ his moral integrity. After the whole thing with Carlton Drake, and losing… everything, there wasn't really any moral integrity left to damage.

He sighs, and his boss claps him on the back. The touch lingers a second too long, and he shivers with reflexive revulsion. "Don't worry, Eddie," says Florida James, teeth shining. "We'll get you workin' faster, soon."

Eddie forces a smile. "Yes, Mr James," and then he very pointedly does not take notice of the implicit criticism. Eddie's working as hard and as fast as he can. He's only a _guy,_ after all.

"Please," says Florida James, sleazy to the last, "Call me Florida," and Jesus Christ, Florida James is a _schmooze._ He catalogues his boss _again,_ once more as an individual who Eddie would _never_ call by his first name. He is just _Florida James._ That was just the way it was. He has to bite back a laugh, but-

A customer calls an order.

Saved by the bell.

"Hi," stutters a nervous woman. Eddie sizes her up. First time at Starbucks, probably. There were lots of drink options, after all, though somehow that seems… wrong. She looks _nervous_ , eyes skittering around the place. She looks smart, though. Something about the way her frantic eyes appear to actually be _looking._

"Hello," he forces a smile, again, pen and cup at the ready. Florida James wanders away, presumably into the back where he could get away with not actually contributing to the running of the Starbucks he was _meant_ to be managing. "What can I get for you?"

She squints at him, biting her bottom lip. "My name is Dora Skirth," she says, darting a hand out to him, a little piece of card clutched in her fingers.

...Eddie ignores it. He's not being paid enough to do… business cards.

"D...ora…" he says, scrawling on the cup. He looks up and smiles as bright as he can force. "What can I get you, Dora Skirth?"

"You're Eddie Brock, right?"

And from there, some things happen exactly as you might expect.

***

Venom finds him pretty quickly, after. After the Life Foundation rocket explodes into shattered metal parts, and after Carlton Drake dies, and after the world shrinks down into himself, again.

His brain, when Venom soothes onto his skin in a way he thinks shouldn't be possible, is metal, fast-melted like a soldering iron on his synapses. It doesn't hurt, not like it had before.

It's like greeting an old friend.

***

He needs the job, though. They need the apartment. He's gotta find a way to avoid rolling onto Annie's front door, somehow.

**_No, we don't. We can-_ **

"Venom," he groans, stretching his hands behind his back. He pulls at his back muscles even though Venom could do that for him. A little mechanical stimulation never killed anybody, right? Venom stimulation, on the other hand, that could kill someone. He blinks at the odd train of thought. He must be tired. "We _need_ the job."

 ** _No,_** they hiss, insistent. God damn, Eddie might even think they were _insolent._

 ** _No!_** Venom repeats. **_Not insolent, just… We don't like him._**

It says a lot that Eddie knows immediately what Venom's talking about. Skeevy boss.

" _Florida_ **_James,_ " **they say, together.

Eddie blinks and snorts a laugh. They were in sync. As always.

 ** _Always,_** Venom repeats. **_We are the same._**

And yeah. It _works._

**_Love you, Eddie._ **

Eddie quirks a smile that he knows shouldn't be as loving as it is. Maybe one day he'd look back on this moment, maybe one day he'd think, "oh fuck, you _loved_ Venom?" and recoil.

But he doubts it. He really, really doubts it.

Venom presses a thick tendril against his cheek, and he laughs, petting it.

"Yeah, yeah," Eddie mumbles, "Attention-seeker." And he goes back to filling out the application form for a news network. He hadn't been taken back on at the Bugle, which seems unfair, still, but he kinda gets it. He's done _less_ damage at crime scenes than he had there.

It calms down, soft. Instead of the steel wrecking ball that his life had been before Venom's return, now it was-

He frowns. Now it was like those little aluminium balls that everyone had been so interested in making for a few seconds of internet fame. The ones where you were meant to tap them, tap-tap-tap until they were shiny and gilded. Like the surface of a knife. He shakes his head again and goes back to work.

***

"Brock," says Florida James. "You're late," he purrs. He and his formal pants lean a little too close for Eddie's liking.

He leans _far_ too close for Venom's liking, who is currently pooling around the hands that Eddie is keeping _firmly_ behind their back.

No, he thinks in Venom's general direction, but all Venom does is shoot him an image of a long tongue.

Eddie pulls a face, then in a crash, remembers that he was meant to be having a conversation with a human man called Florida James. "Sorry about that, Mr James."

 ** _Florida James,_** Venom adds, **_is not a real name_.**

"...Won't happen again."

Florida James squints at him. "Are you okay, Brock? Something's _different_ with you since you took that leave."

He really, really has to resist the urge to show off their mouth. He runs his tongue over his very human, blunt teeth, instead, and says, "I, uh. Wasn't well. Still recovering, I guess."

Florida James makes a noise deep in the back of his throat that somehow manages to come out as a simper. "C'mon, Brock," he mumbles, face too close to Eddie's, _again_. "We got work to do, no time for _recovery_."

He is _very careful_ about his facial expressions.

He is even more careful about the hands behind his back.

"I know, Mr James," Eddie sighs. "I'll try and be on time,"

"You won't 'try', Brock. You'll do it, or you're fired."

A maelstrom of thoughts. All of them are dark, all of them from-

**_How dare he, how dare this little, petty man tell us what to do-_ **

Chill out, he thinks pointedly and shoots an image across to V of him holding out placating hands. Venom hadn't _wanted_ them to keep the job, he reminds, and that seems to be enough to get them to calm.

"Yes, Mr James,"

"Please," Florida James says again. He bares his teeth. It's not as scary as it once was. "Call me Florida."

***

They're gonna eat that guy, one day.

***

He spends a shift fighting with a coffee machine. They have it spare, for some reason, and it's meant to replace the front-of-house one when it breaks.

But the front-of-house machine had broken, and then it turns out the spare one is _also_ broken. It's mechanical, something rammed into one of the mechanisms, somehow.

Eddie scowls at it, and Venom purrs at his shoulder. **_Come on, Eddie,_ _we don't need this job-_**

Eddie swats at him. They do, in fact, need this job. They needed somewhere to live, goddammit, and god forbid he was forced to-

They've had this conversation before.

"No," Eddie mutters under his breath. "We need this damn job."

From that point on, it's a losing battle. Eddie's the strongest on shift, so he'd been drafted to try and open the casing, but every time he tries, Venom wraps his arms with tendrils, and then he can't do it without _breaking_ the damn thing.

"Quit it,"

**_No._ **

"We need this job, V."

Venom sulks and Eddie thinks that maybe it was kind of weird, to have an alien para-

...An alien partner-in-crime that not only made him really big but also _was able to sulk_.

**_Not sulking._ **

But, of course, they _are_ sulking. And the thing is with Eddie, the situation with _Venom,_ was that-

Well, Eddie didn't mind at all sharing his head with an alien. Not these days. Not even, he thinks pointedly, when that alien was sulking.

Venom perks up. **_Aw._**

"Don't get used to it," he mutters, trying to force a bolt with his wrench.

He doesn't mean it, though.

***

"Hi, can I take your order? Yeah, okay, and your name?"

"Cash or card?"

"It'll be at the end of the bar."

The customer grins at him, and something blossoms in his stomach. Easy as one, two, three. Simple. He could serve his frappes by day, eat the bad guys by night.

Easy.

***

Giddily, very very late at night, he thinks of it like that one song. Eat, sleep, rave, repeat, eat, sleep, rave, repeat-

He imagines it with different lyrics. Something about Starbucks, something about his newly regimented hours.

**_That's not very imaginative._ **

"Shut up, it's 3 in the morning," he mutters. They sulk. Again.

**_Go to sleep, then._ **

Venom made that reasonably tricky, and so he grumbles and turns over in bed. Itching at his side, he mutters, "Thought you'd never shut up about-"

**_Florida James is not a 'good guy'. We should eat him._ **

Eddie blinks. "That was a bit out of the blue." He flips back over again, face to the ceiling. There's dust in his eyes, and he yawns.

**_You do not see the way he looks at you._ **

Eddie stays quiet. Doesn't say a word. Venom sounds… like a coiled spring, or somehow like a deflated balloon. Like both, at once.

**_You do not see it, Eddie._ **

***

"Hi, can I take your order? Yeah, okay, and your name?"

"Cash or card?"

"It'll be at the end of the bar."

It doesn't fill him with joy, but… at least it's predictable. He hadn't had that in a while, he figures and pours another latte with a certain amount of comfort.

***

"Hello, can I grab your order? Yeah! Cool, how're you spelling that?"

"Cash, yeah, that's fine."

A smile. Eddie is finding that the more he smiles at them, the more they smile back.

***

Florida James _touches._ Without _permission._

He grabs Eddie by the arm, by the shoulder.

Florida James is-

***

Turns out Florida James _is_ an asshole who kicks cats for fun.

**_Knew it._ **

And Eddie has to admit that's true. Venom _had_ known.

Anyway, what Florida James is actually doing is embezzling money. Money that was due to go to the charity fund that Starbucks runs, he siphons off for himself.

Why that didn't come out of the accounts automatically, Eddie doesn't know.

So anyway, they eat Florida James, and then he quits. It happens in that order.

***

Eddie's skill set is now all over the place. He had barista skills, he had reporting skills, but reporter jobs are the _last_ thing he can get right now. The gig economy wasn't quite secure enough to support Eddie-and-Venom, not least because Venom ran through meat and chocolate like it was going out of style. Like maybe it had _already_ gone out of style, that was how fast they ate.

He taps his fingers against his ring. Hm. Maybe he could get a job in a kitchen.

**_You like the cafe work._ **

Eddie blinks and looks up at the ceiling even though he knows Venom was at his feet, not his head.

"Do I?" he scratches at his head, leaning back on his hips.

**_Yes._ **

Huh. Venom had presumably lifted the information directly from his- well. From a bit of his brain. The memory bit, or the- the feeling bit. Whatever.

"What makes you say that?"

**_You like it when people smile at you._ **

Uh.

_Uh._

"Do I?" he repeats. " _Huh._ "

He doesn't think about Annie's smile, doesn't think about Dan's grin, doesn't think about the odd way Venom could split his mouth, and the teeth, the _teeth_ -

He doesn't think about it. Doesn't.

God damn it, Eddie.

Venom comes pouring out of his neck, slick and sliding, and Eddie would relax into it if he weren't so unwilling to-

Venom smiles at him. Teeth split, inky black casing, something like opals for eyes-

He swallows. "Oh, shut up," he mutters, swatting at their face. "Don't."

 ** _"You are embarrassed, Eddie."_** They bother to say it with their mouth, this time. Eddie ignores the heat in his face, even though Venom can feel it. They grin wider. Clearly, they've not been getting enough exercise.

"Do I need to take you out into the yard?"

**_"We do not have a yard."_ **

"Yeah," Eddie sighs and sits down on his uncomfortable chair. "That's the joke, dipshit."

A sour face, a frown. **_"Not a good one."_**

Eddie makes a face back at them, and that's the end of that conversation. Venom sinks back into his spine, comfortable, soft.

He applies to some coffee shops, though, some little local ones. Venom was not always right-

**_Yes, we are._ **

Eddie ignores them. Venom was _not always right,_ but maybe this could be good for him.

Maybe it could be a good thing, for them.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks for reading! I'm considering doing another chapter of this, so if you're interested in what is essentially smile/praise kink symbrock leave me a comment or shoot me an ask on Tumblr!
> 
> You can find me [@finnlogan](https://finnlogan.tumblr.com) or [@verulamfic ](https://verulamfic.tumblr.com) on Tumblr, where I am still taking fic requests.


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